Butcher shops, markets, and restaurant menus in France use specific words for different meats, cuts, and preparations.
For more about shopping for food, see At the market and At the grocery store.
Common types of meat
These are the main words for meat you will see at a market, grocery store, butcher shop, or restaurant:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| la viande | meat |
| le bœuf | beef |
| le porc | pork |
| l'agneau | lamb |
| le veau | veal |
| le lapin | rabbit |
| le gibier | game |
The name of the animal and the name of its meat are often the same in French. Le porc, for example, can mean both the pig and pork, while le veau can mean both a calf and veal.
Le bœuf is the usual word for beef as food.
Poultry you may see on menus
La volaille is the general word for poultry and includes birds such as chicken, turkey, duck, and goose:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| la volaille | poultry |
| le poulet | chicken |
| la dinde | turkey |
| le canard | duck |
| l'oie | goose |
| la pintade | guinea fowl |
Le poulet is one of the most common poultry words you will encounter. Le canard also appears frequently in French dishes, including confit de canard and magret de canard.
Understanding cuts of meat
Menus and butcher shops use different words for cuts of meat:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| un steak | steak |
| un filet | fillet / tenderloin |
| une côte | chop / rib |
| une côtelette | chop / cutlet |
| un rôti | roast |
| une escalope | thin cutlet |
| une cuisse | leg / thigh |
| un blanc de poulet | chicken breast |
| une aile | wing |
| un gigot | leg of lamb |
Some terms depend on the animal. Un gigot, for example, usually refers to a leg of lamb, while un blanc de poulet is chicken breast.
Buying meat at a butcher shop
A butcher shop is une boucherie, and the butcher is un boucher or une bouchère. You will also encounter words that describe the quantity, cut, or preparation of meat:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| une boucherie | butcher shop |
| un boucher / une bouchère | butcher |
| une pièce de viande | piece / cut of meat |
| une tranche | slice |
| haché / hachée | ground / minced |
| avec os | bone-in |
| sans os | boneless |
You may also encounter une boucherie-charcuterie. A charcuterie specializes in prepared meat products such as ham, sausages, pâtés, and cured meats.
When buying meat, you can ask for a particular cut, quantity, or number of pieces:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Je voudrais deux blancs de poulet. | I'd like two chicken breasts. |
| Je voudrais quatre côtelettes d'agneau. | I'd like four lamb chops. |
| Il me faudrait 500 grammes de bœuf haché. | I need 500 grams of ground beef. |
| Vous avez quelque chose pour faire un rôti ? | Do you have something for making a roast? |
Il me faudrait... is a useful alternative to je voudrais... when explaining what you need to a butcher or another food vendor.
Sausages, charcuterie, and prepared meats
La charcuterie covers many prepared and cured meat products. Some familiar-looking words also make distinctions that are useful when shopping or reading a menu:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le jambon | ham |
| le saucisson | dry-cured sausage |
| une saucisse | sausage |
| le pâté | pâté |
| les lardons | small pieces of bacon |
| le bacon | bacon |
| la charcuterie | prepared / cured meat products |
Le saucisson and une saucisse are not the same thing. Une saucisse is generally a sausage that is cooked, while le saucisson usually refers to a dry-cured sausage that is sliced and eaten without cooking.
Les lardons are small pieces of cured pork belly used in dishes such as quiches, salads, and sauces.
How to order steak
For steak and some other cuts of beef, you may be asked Quelle cuisson ?, meaning how you would like the meat cooked.
These terms describe the progression from very rare to well done:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| bleu / bleue | very rare |
| saignant / saignante | rare |
| à point | medium |
| bien cuit / bien cuite | well done |
Bleu describes meat cooked very briefly, even less than saignant.
You can answer with the cooking level alone or include it when ordering:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Je voudrais le steak saignant. | I'd like the steak rare. |
| À point, s'il vous plaît. | Medium, please. |
| Je le voudrais bien cuit. | I'd like it well done. |
Cooking and preparation terms
Menus and recipes use words that tell you how meat has been prepared or cooked:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| rôti / rôtie | roasted |
| grillé / grillée | grilled |
| braisé / braisée | braised |
| fumé / fumée | smoked |
| haché / hachée | ground / minced |
| farci / farcie | stuffed |
These forms agree with the noun: un poulet rôti, une viande grillée, une escalope farcie.
From learning to practice
When you shop for meat or read a restaurant menu, identify the meat first, then look for the cut and how it is prepared. Try the same with a French menu or recipe and see how much you can understand before looking up unfamiliar words.